Wednesday, June 13, 2007

My last name is often misspelled. It ends with the letter “M” but most people, after I spell it out for them, hear the last letter as an “N”. My social security card is spelled with an “N”. My drivers license with an “M”. My insurance card has an “N”.

Now whenever I have to give out my email or spell my name for someone I always end the spelling of my name by saying, “M as in Mary”. People still get it wrong. I guess they think I say "N" as in Nary. I don't know why I use "Mary" instead of "Michael". I just do.

Part of my job, when talking with customers, requires me to use a series of letters and numbers. In an effort to avoid confusion with letters that sound the same, like “B” and “P” I use a phonetic alphabet. I do not use the official military Phonetic Alphabet (Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta etc.) but I basically make it up as I go along. Most people just substitute common names or animals instead of the letter. I also don’t say the “as in” part (unless the situation requires that I do). Each word I use is the letter itself. So if I were to spell my first name for someone it would sound like “Baker, Indian, Larry, Larry.”

Sometimes I chuckle at some of the words people come up with when they are using their own phonetic alphabet. Recently someone was giving me a tracking number of some sorts and used “Champagne” and “Vodka” for the letters “C” and “V”. It gave a slight insight to what they were thinking.

So I am asking you, blog commenters, how would you, using as a phonetic alphabet, spell your first name? Don’t think too much about it; just leave a comment with how you would normally spell it out.

My real name is so odd that if you google it, you get my professional art website. So I just have to say my name and then I say (for instance) "My name is Stepping, as in "stepping over"...if that makes sense. Spelling it still confuses people even though it is simple. (I know, vague, but not putting my real name up here)

My husband and I argue about the correct name to use when emphasing the V in our last name. Many people hear B instead of V, so I say V as in Vincent - He tells me thats totally wrong. His family has always used V as in Victor. Doesn't matter, people still hear B.

My name - Kite,Rat,Ice,Cat,Kite,Egg,Toe,Toe. yes - its my real name (which is something I always have to say after giving it out)

I blogged about this just a couple of weeks ago, when my husband asked me to tell him over the phone the confirmation code for his flight...when I got to W, all that came to mind for whatever reason, was Whore. I don't know where it came from...Oh boy! You'd think with 2.5 years student pilot training I'd have the phonetic alphabet memorized, but I don't.

You think you got problems? I have to say (for my funky last name) V as in Valentine, X as in X-ray. Even so, my name sounds just like it looks. It seems to me that anyone who can actually read should never mispronounce it, but it happens all the time. If I had an M in my name, I would probably get so frustrated that I would eventually say something mean like, "No. It's not 'N'. That's 'M' as in Moron."

I think I'm going to change my name to a symbol, like Prince did. Let's see people mangle THAT. Ha!